Critique of Marts' "The Columbia River Treaty Revisited"

CRITIQUE OF MARTS' "THE COLUMBIA RIVER TREATY REVISITED'' Allan Hirsch, Executive Secretary Columbia Basin Inter-Agency Committee Portland, Oregon Professor Marts has provided an interesting analysis of some of the factors involved in the controversy concerning ratification of the Canadian treaty, the political and economic and social aspects of which are being debated from the highest levels of government on down. The treaty has not been a matter for discussion by the Columbia Basin Inter-Agency Committee, and there would be very little that I could add to Professor Marts' paper which would not be mere uninformed opinion. So I am going to do what most persons presenting critiques do in any case—and that is to talk about something else. I propose to discuss some implications of the Canadian treaty for Pacific Northwest resource development generally, which perhaps have not been given more than the most preliminary thought, as yet. I want to state from the beginning that what I will talk about does not relate to the validity or content of the treaty itself; my comments are not an analysis of the treaty. However, they will refer to matters which, should the treaty be ratified, would be of concern to the whole program of resource development in the Pacific Northwest, as well as to the participating agencies responsible for carrying out the treaty. I am referring to this: The Canadian treaty deals specifically with two functions of water resource development—power and flood control. But, as we all know, there are many functions of water and related land resource development involved in the comprehensive development of the river basin and the utilization of the region's resources for economic growth. The basic premise of river basin development today is to achieve maximum integration, maximum coordination. This is a difficult thing to achieve. We are attempting to achieve it in this nation—to the extent that it is possible —with a multiplicity of legislative authorities and a multiplicity of agencies with different functions, and it is a very difficult task indeed. This is the basic job of the Columbia Basin Inter-Agency Committee: coordination to attempt to achieve integrated development of the river basin; and the Committee is working hard in this direction. Now, the point is that we don't want to move backward toward piecemeal development of the river basin. This would be a reversal of the whole general trend of river basin development, which began as a series of singlepurpose functions, and which is becoming more and more comprehensive all the time. And certainly every study of water resource needs in this country over the last ten years—and even longer than that—has emphasized the need to make these programs comprehensive and coordinated. Here, then, is a treaty that provides for two functions and for what is essentially a segmented approach—power and flood control. The reason for this is obvious; these are the two functions for which joint international 42 action was needed on the Columbia River and perhaps there was not a similar need for joint action to develop the river for other purposes, such as recreation or water supply. So it is not necessarily wrong that the treaty deals only with these two functions. But the very important question that arises here is, how does this treaty for the carrying out of these two functions, relate to all the other functions of water and related land resource development ? We have had for a long period of time in the Pacific Northwest quite broad and comprehensive programs of resource development. These programs include irrigation, municipal and industrial water supply; increase of low flows for purposes of controlling water pollution (and this is a function which was just authorized by Congress last year and which may be the major new function in programs of water development throughout the nation in years to come); fish and wildlife, recreation, and navigation. Although the treaty refers to flood control and power only, surely nobody will deny the importance of these other functions in developing this region for balanced social and economic growth. Under the treaty—assuming that it is ratified—we will have an operating entity established...